Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which administers the insurance program, say the changes in the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 will allow rates to reflect the full risk of a property.

For example, a home built below a flood plain with current rate of $1,410 a year could see that rate rise to $9,500 over a period of five years.

"Somebody's got to pay," said Bill Read, former director of the National Hurricane Center, and now a consultant for KPRC-TV. "We have known for decades that we're building ourselves into disaster along the coast, and now we're having those disasters. But let's see if it holds up."

Already this year U.S. senators from such states as Louisiana have fought, unsuccessfully so far, to at least delay the implementation of the law.

According to Jacqueline Chandler, a spokeswoman for FEMA's Region 6, which includes Texas, there are 645,911 policyholders in the state, and of those, 61,417 receive subsidies, or less than 10 percent.

Founded in 1968 because most homeowners' insurance policies did not include flood coverage, the National Flood Insurance Program filled a gap for homeowners who found themselves wiped out and financially unable to rebuild.

Although minimum standards for new construction have lessened their flood risks to some degree, older properties have had their rates "grandfathered" even if their flood vulnerabilities have increased.

The new law raises the limit on annual flood insurance premium increases from 10 percent to 20 percent and requires FEMA to prepare a plan over a decade to repay the flood insurance program's $20 billion debt to the U.S. Treasury.

Much of the debt was incurred during the disastrous 2005 hurricane season, but Hurricane Ike in 2008 and Sandy last year also exacerbated the program's costs.

Premiums will rise fastest on properties that are lowest in the flood zone.

The changes will not affect homeowners' insurance policies, which do not cover losses due to floods.

However they may eventually spur the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, which provides windstorm insurance for coastal properties that private insurers won't write policies for, to consider raising its rates to reflect market prices.

Some Texas legislators have criticized the association for subsidizing rates and not having enough reserves to pay for a major disaster should a large hurricane hit the Texas coast.

"That would be a policy issue for the Legislature," said Jerry Hagins, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Insurance, when asked whether TWIA might follow the federal reforms.